Apparatus for consecutively printing and projecting data



Feb. 22, 1966 BQLGER, JR 3,236,149

APPARATUS FOR CONSECUTIVELY PRINTING AND PROJEGTING DATA Filed Dec. 51, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 JOHN G. BOLGER JR.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 22, 1966 APPARATUS FOR CONSECUTIVELY PRINTING AND PROJECTING DATA Filed Dec. 31, 1962 INVENTOR. JOHN G. BOLGER JR.

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APPARATUS FOR CONSECUTIVELY PRINTING AND PROJEGTING DATA Filed Dec. 31, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 8 35 I4 46 47 O 5 6 5 45 3 I 2 5o 3 I S l/ll/l/ll//I/////l///I/I////J L\ N INVENTOR. JOHN G. BOLGER JR.

ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofiice Patented Feb. v 22, 1 966 PRINTING This invention relates to an apparatus for consecutively printing and projecting data in one continuous operation. More specifically, the invention provides a way of printing a transparent image of the data and immediately thereafter projecting that image on a screen.

Such apparatus has real value in many fields. For example, ticker tape information can be received, printed, and immediately projected for customer viewing in brokers offices. Inventory data can be received by teletype, printed, and immediately projected in various locations throughout a warehouse. Score information for games can be tabulated and projected for viewing by the spectators. This last application will be referred to in detail in this specification-specifically for bowlingbut it must be remembered as the disclosure unfolds that a huge realm of other uses, including and in addition to those mentioned above, is possible for the invention.

In the past, bowling scores have been tabulated manually by skilled scorekeepers. These people record line and frame scores, perform the required arithmetic, and record the results with a grease pencil on a transparent sheet. The information on the sheet is then finally projected on a screen for viewing. Such a manual system has numerous disadvantages. First, human errors invariably occur from time to time in all phases of the scorekeepers work. He might miscount the pins, record the score for the wrong bowler, make a mistake in arithmetic, and so forth. His writing is sometimes difficult to read, or the image transferred by the grease pencil is unclear. Second, scorekeepers are expensive. To keep bowling popular prices must be kept low. Labor is a substantial portion of the cost of bowling alley operation. And third, manual scorekeeping is slow, delaying each game and limiting the number of games which can be bowled during limited operating hours. This increases the amount of amortization of equipment and rent which must be applied to each game playedagain raising the cost.

Automatic equipment has recently been developed for automatically sensing and interpreting the knockdown number of pins for each ball. This equipment is described in copending application Serial No. 178,873, filed March 12, 1962, having the same inventor and assigned to the same assignee as this invention. Since such equipment provides the information in a form which can be printed electronically, there is a real need for apparatus which can print the data automatically and project it for spectator viewing immediately thereafter. The printing and projecting apparatus must be relatively simple to operate, completely automatic, and lend itself to mass-production. There are about 200,000 bowling alleys in operation in the United States alone which can make use of such equipment. In addition there are many more abroad.

This invention provides an apparatus and a method for automatically and consecutively printing and projecting data, as exemplified by bowling scores in the following description. Briefly, the apparatus of the invention is as follows: a printing element is used having dies, or raised characters, for printing the scores. These characters are located on the striking surface of the element. The characters may be changed automatically to represent the proper score in response to signals from a computer which computes the correct bowling score for one or many bowlers. The details of this printing element and the method of changing the characters on it are beyond the scope of this invention, but are fully described in copending application Serial No. 248,806, filed December 31, 1962, also of the same inventor and assigned to the same assignee as this invention.

Bowling data is normally arranged in rows of numbers, each row containing the score for a particular frame for one or many bowlers, and the team totals, if desired. The apparatus of the invention, therefore, provides a means for selectively moving the printing surface to print in each of these rows. Although the printing element prints only in one place at each stroke, the motion of the printing surface allows printing to occur in any selected row on the surface. Often one bowler will be bowling one frame while a team-mate will be bowling another. The apparatus must then be able to skip from one row to the other easily, dependably, and accurately. Furthermore, the apparatus must move between the printing and the projecting positions very rapidly.

The method of this invention assumes that the proper information is presented on the printing element. As the first step in this method, the printing element is struck against a printing surface. This surface itself comprises a translucent base material having an opaque, removable coating which faces the printing element. This coating is removed where the printing surface is struck by the printing element, leaving a translucent impression of the data. The impression is surrounded by the remaining opaque coating. The next step, following immediately after the first, projects the translucent impression on a screen for spectator viewing.

The removable coating is sometimes of a type (generally a carbon-containing compound) that will adhere to and clog the dies on the printing element, causing imperfect reduction. A preferred embodiment of the invention includes an extra step in which a sheet of protective material is placed between the printing surface and the printing element before the act of printing, to protect the dies from carbon deposition. This sheet is removed before projection.

The various embodiments of the apparatus, as well as the details of the method of the invention, will be clearly understood from the following more detaled description and the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial illustration having parts cut away, showing one embodiment of the invention, and omitting the projecting screen and the printing surface;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view, somewhat in section, showing the apparatus of the invention including the printing surface, the sheet of protective material between the printing surface and the printing element, and the projection lenses and screen;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view showing the tray in printing position; and

FIG. 4 is a front view, partially broken away, showing the tray position indicator and tray slide arm in more detail.

For easy reference, the corresponding parts shown in more than one figure are given the same reference number in all figures. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the apparatus of the invention is mounted on a board 1. Tray 2, having a plurality of fingers 3, is adapted to hold a printing surface 4 which is shown only in FIG. 2. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the tray is shown in projecting position. Printing surface 4 is held to tray 2 by four slips 5. The tray is slidably mounted on supports 6 by means of rigidly fixed bearing blocks 7. In the projecting position shown, the tray is located above one or more projection lamps 8 which are focused by one or more lenses 9. One such lamp may provide projection illumination for all five openings between fingers 3 of tray 2, or each opening may have its own lamp. The lamps are usually located about 6 inches below the printing surface 4 which is clipped to the upper surface of tray 2 in clips 5 as shown in FIG. 2. The projection components are conventional and no further description is believed necessary here.

The sliding tray 2 is moved by arms and 11. Each of these arms is bent as shown and pivoted to a short extension 12 and 13, respectively. The unpivoted ends of extensions 12 and 13 are connected to each other by a shaft 14.

The tray is moved by motor 15 equipped with a magnetic brake 16. In practice, a small H.P., 25 r.p.m. motor is satisfactory. The magnetic brake provides instantaneous stopping of the motor at any desired position of motor shaft 17 the moment the power to motor 15 is turned off. Shaft 17 of motor 15 has a eccentric crank 18 attached to it. The end of this crank 18 is pivotally connected to one end of extension 13 of arm 11, as shown. As shaft 17 rotates, tray 2 is caused to slide in mounting 6 forward and backward as the motor 15 rotates. The tray alternates between the projecting position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the various printing positions, such as the one shown in FIG. 3. In the printing positions, fingers 3 of tray 2 are interdigitated with printing supports 19. Printing elements strike downwardly on the printing surface 4 located over the printing supports 19. The printing elements strike with a reasonably strong force, e.g., about ten foot-pounds, in order to insure a clean impression on the printing surface.

It is preferable that printing supports 19 be slightly resilient to insure a clean impression in spite of slight irregularities in the printing dies or in the orientation in which they strike the printing surface. In the embodiment shown, these supports consist of a plurality of resilient fingers.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the method of printing may be clearly understood. Tray 2 slides beneath printing element 20, as shown in FIG. 3, to reach the proper printing position. When the tray is so positioned, solenoid 37 is energized, pulling shaft 38 into the solenoid and swinging printing element 20 on shaft 35 so that its raised characters strike on the printing surface. The motion of printing element 20 is stopped by shaft 14. During the printing operation, spring 39 is loaded and solenoid 37 swings slightly on pivot 41. After printing is completed, spring 39 returns element 20 to its normal non-printing position.

The sliding position of tray 2 can be sensed electrically. Referring to FIG. 4, a plurality of contacts 21 are mounted on the side of motor 15. Contacts 21 are contacted by a brush 22 attached to motor shaft 17. As shaft 17 rotates, brush 22 rotates correspondingly, and at each position of the shaft, brush 22 will touch a different one of contacts 21. Since the position of shaft 17 also determines the position of the sliding tray, the different electrical signal sent for each different contact 21 touched by brush 22 will indicate the position of the tray. For bowling use, tray 2 has thirteen possible printing positions, and an additional position for projecting.

A complete cycle of operation of the apparatus of this invention includes both printing and projecting. Referring againt to FIG. 1, after the printing portion of the cycle has been completed, the tray returns automatically to the position shown in FIG. 1 for projecting. When the tray reaches its maximum outward swing away from printing supports 19, arm 13 hits switch 23 to stop the cycle. The score is then projected on screen 42 by illumination from lamp 8 passing through lenses 9 and 43 and reflector 44. The printing and projecting cycle is repeated when the next printing signal is received by the motor. Such a signal provides exactly the required amount of power to motor 15 to move tray 2 to the next printing position.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, scoresheet 4 has a paper cover 45 held apart from the scoresheet 4 during projection by hinged plate 46 and fixed plate 47. Handle 48 is connected to plate 46 which is hinged at hinge 49.

the printing surface or adequate cooling is available.

Lifting this handle to the position shown in dotted lines allows for easy insertion of paper 45. During the printing operation, paper 45 slides out from between plates 46 and 47 as tray 2 moves beneath printing element 20 as shown in FIG. 3. While tray 2 slides back to the projecting position in FIG. 2, paper 45 slides back between plates 46 and 47. During the printing stroke, printing surface 4 is covered by paper sheet 45 so that the raised characters 36 cannot contact the printing surface directly, but strike instead upon paper cover sheet 45. This prevents characters 36 from being covered with the coating removed from printing surface 4.

The printing surface is made of translucent material, such as glass, polyester film, polyethylene, vinyl, or the like. It should be tear-resistant, and preferably heat-resistant so that it is not softened by heat from the projecting lamp. It should, therefore, have a softening point above about 60 C, unless the projection system is insulated from A thickness of about 0002-0005 inch has been found satisfactory in practice. Since a great many scoresheets are required, this material should also be inexpensive.

The printing surface is coated on the side facing the printing element with a removable opaque coating, such as carbon, wax, or the like. This coating should be thin enough to be capable of being completely removed when struck by the printing element, leaving a translucent impression of the printed character. About 0.005" to 0.001" of coating has been found adequate. The coating should be soft enough to be entirely removed by the printing element, but hard enough so that it is not removed in handling, otherwise dirty fingers result.

If desired, the printing surface may be joined to the paper cover at one edge 50, as shown in FIG. 2. This allows complete scoresheet assemblies to be prefabricated, and eliminates the need for a separate cover paper to be inserted in the clip along with each scoresheet. The joined edge 50 is inserted in clips 5 on the edge of tray 2 facing resilient supports 19. The non-joined edge of the printing surface is inserted in clips 5 on the edge of tray 2 away from resilient supports 19. The non-joined edge of the paper cover is inserted between plates 46 and 47 as described above.

Full appreciation of the advantages of the invention, now that it has been described in detail, may be had by reviewing its place in a completely automated bowling scorekeeping system. First, the player bowls his two balls. His pin knockdown is counted by an automatic pin sensing apparatus. This information is fed to an interpreter and there interpreted The output signal from the interpreter is then fed to the apparatus of this invention and causes the tray to be properly positioned so that the score will be printed in the correct frame; at the same time another signal from the interpreter is sent to the printing element, causing the proper characters to be set up for printing. The printing element next strikes the scoresheet, leaving a translucent impression of the score. The tray then moves, still automatically, into the projecting position and the score is projected on a screen for the spectators to see. When the next frame is bowled by the same bowler (or by another bowler in the same team) the entire process is repeated. This process is entirely automated. The need for scorekeepers, and the concomitant arguments about scores have been eliminated, and scorekeeping speed and accuracy have been increased.

Only one embodiment of the invention, relating to bowling scorekeeping, has been described in detail. Many other embodiments useful in many other fields are possible using the inventive concepts described above. Therefore, the only limitations to be placed upon the scope of this invention are those set forth in the claim which follows.

What is claimed is:

Apparatus for consecutively printing and projecting data which comprises:

a printing element having the data to be printed embossed on its striking surface;

a printing surface which after being struck by said printing element, displays opaque and translucent portions corresponding to said data;

a sliding tray having a plurality of fingers having spaces between them;

a means for holding said printing surface to said tray;

a support means slidably holding said tray;

two arms pivotally connected together at one end, the other end of one arm being pivotally held to said sliding tray;

21 means for pulling the other end of the other arm in either direction, thereby causing said tray to slide;

a means for halting the motion of said tray at predetermined locations of said printing surf-ace relative to said projecting means;

means for striking said printing element against said printing surface upon said tray; and

means for projecting light through said printing surface onto a projecting surface, thereby projecting said data.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS NORTON ANSHER, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM MISIEK, DELBERT B. LOWE, Examiners. 

